Help, John Oliver: How the FCC Is Trying to Trick Us About Net Neutrality

Earlier this month, John Oliver urged his fans to fight back against a plan to kill net neutrality — a confusing but important policy most people only understand if they pay close attention to internet freedom, or watch Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight.”

But Federal Communications Commission chair Ajit Pai has a pretty savvy publicity team of his own. The only problem? It isn’t exactly telling you the truth.

Net neutrality is an Obama-era policy designed to ensure that everyone has pretty much the same access to the internet — and that no company can pull strings to gain advantage over its competitors.

For example: Net neutrality rules prohibit internet service providers like Comcast and AT&T from offering different internet speeds to different companies based on their ability to pay. The current rules are supposed to ensure, for example, that Comcast doesn’t slow down streaming by Netflix or Amazon, two companies that, like Comcast, provide streamable movies and TV shows. The cable giant could theoretically make such a move to hobble its competitors.

Consumer groups also worry that allowing internet service providers to favor some companies might lead them to choke off certain news services.

The FCC points to public comments to suggest there is broad support for its plan to lift net neutrality restrictions — creating an unfettered free market in which providers could set whatever speeds they like — perhaps giving preferential treatment to companies that pay for it.

But a closer look reveals the FCC’s plan is meeting stiff opposition by the same sectors cited by the FCC — the public and Silicon Valley.

On May 11, Berry tweeted, “New @MorningConsult poll: 78% of Americans favor either light-touch Internet regulation or no regulation at all.” He linked to a public opinion poll of nearly 2,200 registered voters conducted by Morning Consult between April 20-24.

The same day, Berry also tweeted about the same poll, saying, “Americans OPPOSE regulating Internet access as a utility by 18-point margin.”

But Berry was a little selective in his choices about what elements of the poll to cite in his tweets. Though he didn’t say so, the poll also reveals that most of the people questioned lacked knowledge about “regulating internet access as a utility” – the legal underpinning of net neutrality. Sixty-four percent said they had knew “not much” or “nothing at all” about net neutrality.

Once pollsters informed the voters that net neutrality “is a set of rules which say Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as Comcast, Time Warner [now Spectrum], AT&T and Verizon cannot block, throttle, or prioritize certain content on the Internet,” nearly two thirds of the voters – 61 percent – said they “strongly support (24 percent) or “somewhat support” (37 percent) net neutrality.

But again — Berry didn’t mention that.

In another series of tweets, Berry tweeted about “Silicon Valley support for Internet freedom,” citing Oracle’s letter of support for rescinding net neutrality. He also tweeted that a Silicon Valley trade group, the Internet Association, spoke out against racist comments on the FCC website directed at Pai, an Indian-American.

But Berry failed to tweet that the Internet Association — composed of Silicon Valley heavyweights Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yelp and Netflix — had previously met with Pai and Berry to express their strong opposition to Pai’s plan to reverse net neutrality.

That’s right: It’s possible to disagree with someone on policy while also believing he should not suffer racist attacks.

“The internet industry is uniform in its belief that net neutrality preserves the consumer experience, competition, and innovation online,” the Internet Association leaders told Pai and Berry during an April 11 meeting. “In other words, existing net neutrality rules should be enforced and kept intact.”

Berry also tweeted on May 2 about “strong support on Capitol Hill” for Pai’s plan and linked to an FCC press release about congressional support. But the list includes only 13 representatives and senators — all Republicans.

Fossett based his findings on a sample of 200 responses and removed all verbatim duplicative responses, which may have been fraudulent postings by a robot or the results of a grassroots campaign inspired by the HBO show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”

As Fossett noted on his internet post, “Public comments on the FCC’s anti-net neutrality proceeding have exploded over the past week following an incisive pro-net neutrality rant from John Oliver on Sunday [May 8].”

As of Monday, more than 1.5 million public comments had been submitted to the FCC website on net neutrality. The FCC public comments period is currently closed until the FCC issues its decision Thursday.

We’re in for at least (probably) two more years of Donald Trump as President of the United States. That means lots of bad things and one particularly great thing: We’re in for a lot more Alec Baldwin impersonations of Trump on “Saturday Night Live.” From the often ridiculous phrases to the weird outbursts, “SNL” has captured all of it. In fact, the sketches often seem to struggle to surpass reality in terms of absurdity. But they get there. Here’s a list of every Baldwin-as-Trump “SNL” sketch, ranked from least to most hilarious, with links to the sketches.

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29. Trump’s Classroom Cold Open (Dec. 3, 2016)

Trump retweets ridiculous people, like a 16-year-old and a white supremacist. This one’s sadder than it is funny, though, because most of it doesn’t even require jokes. You can watch that sketch here.

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28. Donald Trump Prepares Cold Open (Nov. 19, 2016)

Fresh off winning the election, Trump’s completely unprepared. We already know that Mike Pence will do everything, but good effort, “SNL.” You can watch that sketch here.

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27. Trump’s Christmas Cold Open (Dec. 17, 2016)

Vladimir Putin and Rex Tillerson drop by Trump Tower for Christmas. This one definitely brings to mind the phrase, “No puppet, no puppet.” It's also, perhaps, the most outright terrifying of all of these. You can watch that sketch here.

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26. The O'Reilly Factor with Donald Trump (April 8, 2017)

Alec Baldwin played both a scandalized Bill O'Reilly and Trump, who appeared on O'Reilly's show to defend him. A clueless Trump is a nice addition to this one but he's ultimately just an addition to another gag. You can watch the sketch here.

The first debate really found Baldwin hitting the Trump stride. It’s mostly just him shouting “Gina” in a very insistent tone (his weird pronunciation of "China"). “Yuge Gina” gets a lot of mileage though. You can watch that sketch here.

"SNL" made good on Trump's all-caps "SEE YOU IN COURT" tweet by taking the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to "The People's Court." But Judge Milian hassling Trump about his travel ban was a bit too short to really take off. Watch the sketch here.

After a tough White House Press Briefing, Melissa McCarthy's Press Secretary Sean Spicer rode his motorized podium to New York to confront Trump on lies. The pair wound up making out. Watch the sketch here.

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20. Donald Trump Phoenix Rally Cold Open (Aug. 24, 2016)

Trump gives a goodbye to Steve Bannon and pledges to build the Wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and make the American tax payer pay for it. Watch the sketch here.

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19. Trump's People (April 8, 2017)

Trump checks in with rural white Americans after ordering an airstrike on Syria. Desperate to keep everyone happy, he promises everyone will have coal jobs for the rest of their lives and that he'll slash minimum wage. The final joke about "finger chili" is a standout moment. Watch the sketch right here.

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18. Press Conference With Baltic Leaders (April 7, 2018)

Trump meets with leaders from the Baltics and gets so bored that he finally tells America what he really thinks about the presidency. Watch the sketch here.

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17. Fox & Friends Cold Open (Feb. 5)

Trump called in to his favorite show, Fox News' "Fox & Friends," for a quick pick-me-up after his State of the Union address. Trump isn't the complete focus of this one, but when he shows up to tout the address, he gets in some good jokes -- like how "people" are saying the SOTU was better than Martin Luther King's "I Dream of Jeannie" speech. Watch the sketch here.

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16. VP Debate Cold Open (Oct. 8, 2o16)

Trump nabs the spotlight from the vice presidential debate and realizes he needs to be a lot more careful about talking about sexually assaulting people while wearing hot mics. Describing himself as a gross groping hurricane is hilariously cringe-worthy. You can watch that sketch here.

Trump spoke to American troops to rally them in a battle against super-powerful space aliens. Unfortunately, Trump's old standbys like "we don't win anymore" and "we're going to bring coal back" were not all that helpful. Most of the rhetoric is stuff we've heard before, but Leslie Jones' and Sasheer Zamata's moments near the end elevate the sketch. Watch the sketch here.

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14. White House Tree Trimming Cold Open (Dec. 16, 2017)

Joined by his family, Mike Pence, Jeff Sessions, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway, Trump decks his Christmas tree by remembering the losers in his first year as president. Watch the video here.

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13. Trump call with Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz (Sept. 30, 2016)

Trump fields a call with Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and reminds her that if the U.S. territory should have invested in FEMA Prime if it wanted fast hurricane relief. Watch the sketch here.

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12. Trump Administration sings "Hallelujah" (May 20, 2017)

The final cold open of the season references Kate McKinnon's cold open as Hillary Clinton, making a perfect joke about Donald Trump's week of news scandals. Scarlett Johansson even returned for a quick guest appearance to reprise her role as Ivanka Trump. Watch it here.

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11. Hillary Clinton/Donald Trump Cold Open (Nov. 5, 2016)

CNN doesn’t care that Trump literally kisses the FBI, Putin and the KKK, instead pestering Hillary about emails. Alec and Kate heartwarming run through Times Square is the real sweet spot of the sketch. You can watch that sketch here.

After a week of reports about infighting between Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, "SNL" pits the two advisers against each other in to see who will be eliminated. Spoiler alert: It's Bannon. Watch the sketch here.

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9. Donald Trump Trucker Rally Did Cold Open (Oct. 14, 2017)

Baldwin's Trump continues to make Vice President Mike Pence (Beck Bennett) walk out of things in protest, including a basketball game, a Starbucks and a gay wedding. Watch the sketch here.

Of all the debates, the second was the funniest. Trump lurking in the background and slipping past Hillary like he’s the shark in a “Jaws” movie completely captures the awkwardness of the real event. You can watch that sketch here.

Riffing on the finale of "The Sopranos," Trump meets with members of his inner circle at a restaurant, including Ben Stiller's Michael Cohen, only to find Robert De Niro's Robert Mueller watching him. Check out the sketch here.

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5. Donald Trump Press Conference Cold Open (Jan. 14, 2017)

It might be the lowest-brow of the sketches, but Trump accidentally talking about urine throughout his press conference is bested only by the line, “I’m not talking about the pee-pee, because it didn’t happen and it wasn’t as cool as it sounds.” You can watch that sketch here.

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4. Donald Trump and Steve Bannon call world leaders (Feb. 4, 2017)

"SNL" channels two weeks of executive actions and other Trump news items to turn out a ton of jokes that channel absurdity while still finding new ways to be funny. Watch the sketch here.

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3. Donald Trump interview with Lester Holt (May 13, 2017)

After firing former FBI Director James Comey, Trump realized he could say just about anything with no consequences. He tried it out in an interview with Lester Holt. Watch the sketch here.

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2. Presidential Address (March 4, 2018)

Trump addresses the gun control debate and talks about how America is in the top 5 countries in the world -- but lags behind Wakanda, the fictional African nation from the movie "Black Panther." Watch the sketch here.

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1. Michael Cohen Wiretap Cold Open (May 5, 2018)

Trump's wiretapped attorney, Michael Cohen, accidentally calls and incriminates Trump -- along with everybody else -- in a star-studded cold-open that ends with a surprise appearance by the real life Stormy Daniels. Watch it here.

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Get ready for two more years of this

We’re in for at least (probably) two more years of Donald Trump as President of the United States. That means lots of bad things and one particularly great thing: We’re in for a lot more Alec Baldwin impersonations of Trump on “Saturday Night Live.” From the often ridiculous phrases to the weird outbursts, “SNL” has captured all of it. In fact, the sketches often seem to struggle to surpass reality in terms of absurdity. But they get there. Here’s a list of every Baldwin-as-Trump “SNL” sketch, ranked from least to most hilarious, with links to the sketches.